CHLOE. [Clasping her hands] You're a cruel fellow if you can spoil a woman's life who never did you an ounce of harm. DAWKER. So they don't know about you. That's all right. Now, look here, I serve my employer. But I'm flesh and blood, too, and I always give as good as I get. I hate this family of yours. There's no name too bad for 'em to call me this last month, and no looks too black to give me. I tell you frankly, I hate. CHLOE. There's good in them same as in you. DAWKER. [With a grin] There's no good Hornblower but a dead Hornblower. CHLOE. But--but Im not one. DAWKER. You'll be the mother of some, I shouldn't wonder. CHLOE. [Stretching out her hand-pathetically] Oh! leave me alone, do! I'm happy here. Be a sport! Be a sport! DAWKER. [Disconcerted for a second] You can't get at me, so don't try it on. CHLOE. I had such a bad time in old days. [DAWKER shakes his head; his grin has disappeared and his face is like wood.] CHLOE. [Panting] Ah! do! You might! You've been fond of some woman, I suppose. Think of her! DAWKER. [Decisively] It won't do, Mrs. Chloe. You're a pawn in the game, and I'm going to use you. CHLOE. [Despairingly] What is it to you? [With a sudden touch of the tigress] Look here! Don't you make an enemy, of me. I haven't dragged through hell for nothing. Women like me can bite, I tell you. DAWKER. That's better. I'd rather have a woman threaten than whine, any day. Threaten away! You'll let 'em know that you met me in the Promenade one night. Of course you'll let 'em know that, won't you?--or that---- CHLOE. Be quiet! Oh! Be quiet! [Taking from her bosom the notes and the pearls] Look! There's my savings--there's all I've got! The pearls'll fetch nearly a thousand. [Holding it out to him] Take it, and drop me out--won't you? Won't you? DAWKER. [Passing his tongue over his lips with a hard little laugh] You mistake your man, missis. I'm a plain dog, if you like, but I'm faithful, and I hold fast. Don't try those games on me. CHLOE. [Losing control] You're a beast!--a beast! a cruel, cowardly beast! And how dare you bribe that woman here to spy on me? Oh! yes, you do; you know you do. If you drove me mad, you wouldn't care. You beast! DAWKER. Now, don't carry on! That won't help you. CHLOE. What d'you call it--to dog a woman down like this, just because you happen to have a quarrel with a man? DAWKER. Who made the quarrel? Not me, missis. You ought to know that in a row it's the weak and helpless--we won't say the innocent --that get it in the neck. That can't be helped. CHLOE. [Regarding him intently] I hope your mother or your sister, if you've got any, may go through what I'm going through ever since you got on my track. I hope they'll know what fear means. I hope they'll love and find out that it's hanging on a thread, and--and-- Oh! you coward, you persecuting coward! Call yourself a man!